PHILADELPHIA – The shots were to the right, to the left, long and short, everywhere but in the basket. For more than an entire quarter, 12:10 to be precise, spanning the third and fourth quarters, the Pacers missed 13 straight shots. During that run, Indiana let its own double-digit lead transform into a four-point deficit. The Pacers missed their final shot of the third quarter and their first 12 attempts of the fourth.

“I knew we were missing but I mean I didn’t have my watch on,” said Chris Mullin. “I didn’t realize that. You’re out there playing the game. That’s up to you guys (media) to figure out the times.”

And while it looked for certain that this series would be extended, that the Gen X upstart Sixers would at least force a fifth game, the veteran, poised as a boulder Pacers regrouped and thought back to those countless hours they worked voluntarily during the lockout.

“A lot of teams that aren’t as experienced as we are probably would have folded and looked forward to going back to Indiana,” offered Mark Jackson. “But we looked at each other and said, ‘We have to step it up.’ The time we put in during the off-season paid off. We said all along we didn’t know when it was going to pay off.”

And it paid off almost immediately. After Reggie Miller swiped an Eric Snow pass, Mullin – who had hit the previous Indy basket, a 3-pointer at 2:12 of the third – hit another triple, this one in transition with 2:02 left. That set up Miller, who hit a running leaner at 1:37, and Indiana never yielded the lead and went on to sweep away the Sixers and 25-point scorer Allen Iverson, 89-86, at First Union Center here yesterday.

The Pacers, who went home to await either the Knicks or Hawks for the Eastern Finals, felt no sense of panic cast amid the frenzied, towel-waving Sixer fans who went ballistic on every Iverson score or Matt Geiger rebound (13 and 23 points). The Sixers were going without inside force Theo Ratliff (calf) but were determined to extend the Pacers, fighting back from a deficit that swelled to 17 in the first half and stood at 11 entering the fourth quarter.

“There were situations during the lockout, a lot of situations we did on our own where we visualized actually being in that situation,” Miller recounted. “We said, ‘There’s no need to panic.’ We knew we were going to get a defensive stop.”

The Pacers got even more than that as Philly missed four straight shots, the last three being airballs. Iverson missed a three then Eric Snow fell woefully short on a triple before Geiger put up a four-footer from six feet away. Then Indy vaulted into an 86-83 lead on Miller’s bank and Rik Smits’ layup. Smits then halted the last Sixer hope, getting a piece of a corner jumper by Iverson.